CJassification of the Asconidae. 357 



bank's genera and species of sponges. He retained the name 

 Leucosolenia for " Grantia hotryoides und ahnliche," while 

 for the " massive Grantien " he maintains his own genus 

 Nardoa. Thus he classifies the Ascons known to him as 

 follows : — Leucosolenia hotryoides and pidchra *, Nardoa 

 lacunosa, reticidum^ and spongiosa *, Kolliker. 



In 1867 Gray t published a classification of calcareous 

 sponges in which the Ascons were distributed among two 

 genera : — (1) Leucosolenia^ which was further divided into 

 " arborescent " forms, as L. hotryoides^ " massive, Nardoa,^'' 

 as L. contorta and L. lacunosa, and " incrusting," as L, cori- 

 acea] (2) Clathrina, gen. nov., for C. sulphur ea= Grantia 

 clathrus, O. S. Had the author known coriacea in its 

 " massive " forms and clathrus in its expanded condition, 

 there can be no doubt he would have put them in his Nardoa 

 group, and then his classification M^ould have been practically 

 the same as the one I propose here. 



In 1868 Miklucho-Maclay J described a new genus and 

 species of Ascons — Guancha hlanca. 



In 1870 appeared Hackel's confused and perplexing 

 ' Prodromus ' §, which, after what has been said above, need 

 not detain us longer; and in 1872 he put forth || his well- 

 known " natural system," in which the sponges we are here 

 concerned with appeared under generic names as follows : — 



(1) Ascetta coriacea^ hlanca, clathrus^ and primordialisj 



sp. n. 



(2) Ascortis lacunosa. 



(3) Ascaltis hotryoides and cerehrum, sp. n. 



(4) Ascandra Lieherkuhnii, contorta, compUcata, varinhilis, 



sp. n,, sindi falcata, sp. n. 



In 1883 Polejaeff^ united all Ascons in Bowerbank's old 

 genus Leucosolenia. 



In 18yl von Lendenfeld ** tried to improve on Hackel's 

 scheme, with the following result : — 



* Pulchra, 0. S., and spongiosa, Kolliker, are doubtful species. The 

 former is asserted by von Lendenfeld to be a synonym of priynordialis, 

 and spongiosa is doubtfully identified by Hackel as cerebrum. It seems to 

 me not improbable \X\2i\. pulchra, and perhaps spcmgiosa also, are synonyms 

 of coriacea. 



t " Notes on the Arrangement of Sponges, with the Description of 

 some new Genera," Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, pp. 553-558. 



X " Beitrage ziu' Keuntniss der Spongien," Jen. Zeitschr. iv. pp. 221- 

 232, Taf. iv., v. 



§ T. c. supra. || T. c. suprdi. 



•jy Loc. cit. ** Loc. cit. 



